My brothers and sisters, fellow thinkers, I want to write about sense.

I've
been grappling with some ideas for quite a while now and I think I might be
able to articulate them. I think they have the potential to be important ideas
and they are by no means my own ideas. You will have to excuse me if I slip
into a preachy tone. You will surely understand, anyone who has ever had
something they feel is important to tell other people but isn't sure how to say
it can end up sounding tedious. So please excuse me if this becomes the
case.
Sense, is without a doubt, is the single most important pillar holding up
everything humans have achieved. By 'sense' I simply mean patterns in the
world, or rather our own ability to recognise and understand those patterns.
It underpins everything we do, it is how we learn, how we see and feel. From
the moment of birth (and indeed, for some time before that) our brains
detect and analyse patterns in our environment, eventually attaching
meaning to them, categorising them and filing them away for use. We
orientate ourselves in the world by way of the consistency of the patterns.
We come to intuitively understand inertia and gravity by the pattern in which
matter behaves. We learn wet and dry, hot and cold, pain and pleasure
becasue these things make sense, their patterns hold consistency and all the
human brain does is seek those patterns. That is the very least any animal
must do, if it is to be successful in it's survival in the environment.
My interest lies in what happens when the pattern-seeking human mind
encounters true paternlessness, which is a rare enough thing in our world of
patterns and sense. What occurs when we butt up against anti-sense, or
non-sense can tell us a lot about ourselves, personally but also
collectively.edit there is no such thing as 'paternlessness' but there are
patterns which do not make sense to us or that we are unable to see and this
is functionally similar to 'paternlessness'.
Something happened recently, a brief exchange between some friends that
struck me as an excellent illustration for what I am trying to talk about. I
had walked up to my friends in a local park, we were sitting in the sun. I was
looking for a phone number so I turned to A and asked if he had his phone
with him. He shot back instantly with, 'I smashed my phone up with a
hammer'. I could tell he was not joking or lying but what he had said did not
strike me as strange, it even seemed right and proper. It was totally absurd
and I accepted it at face value. However B had a confused look on his face
and wanted to know more. It transpired that A had just taken it upon himself
to destroy his own phone with a hammer for very little to no reason
whatsoever, he said it felt good and I completely understood everything he
was saying, agreeing with it all, but B said 'that doesn't make any sense'. No
more was said about it at the time but I have been thinking about the
exchange for a few days now. B's reaction to A's apparently random act of
destruction is symptomatic of a larger 'absolute sense paradigm' that
humans have become trapped in. I say 'trapped' but really, it would be
disadvantageous for us to care or focus any time on nonsensical things,
given that our survival on this planet is so irrevocably tied to sense and
patterns. All I really mean by 'trapped' is that our endless need for sense is
something that can be escaped and I think there is a benefit to be found in
escaping it. I think I have just contradicted myself, but I will continue on
regardless.
I want to talk now about the ideas of much wiser men than myself, about a
branch of existentialism called Absurdism. It deals very specifically with the
relationship between sense (pattern) and nonsense (no pattern) and how
that can affect us. It posits some basic statements, seeking to draw
conclusions from these and is not unlike Nihilism, though it takes the ideas
further, is more complete. The first statement of Absurdism is that the
human mind seeks patterns as a necessary part of life and survival, it always
has done, always will and is exceedingly good at doing it. I've covered that
already. The second statement is that there is no inherent meaning to
existence, no higher purpose to life. This is primarily an anti-theist sentiment
in that it excludes the idea that life might have been created deliberately and
even if there might be a Meaning of Life we could surely never know what
that is, and never being able to know meaning is functionally identical to
there not being any meaning. This is similar to the question of free will. We
are either free to make our own decisions or we are subject to chaotic
determinism, the result of both of these things appears to be identical and
we can never know for sure so arguing about which is the case is totally
pointless.
So what are we to do with a statement like there is no meaning to existence?
I can be a harrowing thought to think. It can make you feel very small and
alone. Everyone you've ever known and loved just spinning through an
endless sea of nothing on a rock. No benevolent deity looking down, no
judgment or afterlife. Ethics start to breakdown in the face of universal
indifference. Why should we be good? Why should we even live at all? All of
humanities ideas and mythologies and theologies, just painted thinly onto a
great void. This is Nihilism, but in a crude form. Absurdism tries to move
beyond this.
So we seek patterns. There are none to be found when we examine our own
existence (edit when we examine the meaning of our own existence,
emphasis on meaning i.e. purpose or objective value of our existence). What
happens next is called The Absurd. Absurdism deals with the ultimate
absurdity, the Meaning of Life (or lack thereof) and some interesting
observations are made by it's key proponents. Camus says that all people
will make a choice when they come up against The Absurd and that there are
only three essential ways that we respond to it. The first is suicide, this is the
response advocated by some nihilistic schools of thought. Some people will
simply recognise The Absurd for what it is and decide that physical death is
the only solution. Camus does not himself advocate this but he says that we
cannot really criticise those that do since they have at least recognised the
absurd and their choice is based upon that recognition. The second and most
common response, is elusion. This is the rejection of The Absurd and the
denial of meaninglessness. This response includes all religious faiths as well
as any personal convictions in there being some description of higher
purpose or meaning to existence. Camus thinks this amounts to running
away from something fearful, flight from the truth and he considers it to be
'philosophical suicide', worse in this eyes than physical suicide. One can
sympathise with wanting to hide from The Absurd, it is a big intimidating
idea and it does not offer any comfort or answers but there is a third option
and this is the response advocated by the Absurdists, recognition and
acceptance of The Absurd.
To accept The Absurd is a challenge. It's not easy, nor should it be for it
contradicts everything we know as pattern seeking animals. Camus believes
that the best response is to stand up to it, to face off with The Absurd and to
continue on with our lives whilst never losing sight of it. Absurdism departs
from Nihilism here. Meaning, in and of itself is not impossible but it does not
from from the Universe, or from a higher power. We must carve it out of the
world around us and build it into our lives as sort of like a big 'fuck you' to
the Absurd. Camus says we must be like soldiers, bitterly resigned to our
fate but battling on. Fearlessly fighting and challenging The Absurd. There is
no happiness or warmth to be found in this fight, those things must be
created for ourselves and by ourselves, they cannot simply be willed into
existence or discovered lying about the place.
You are standing on the edge of a cliff with your back to the drop. In front of
you is everything in the world, over your shoulder is an endless black void,
The Absurd. You could live your whole life and never turn around, living
entirely in ignorance of the Absurd but if you were to perhaps glance back or
an event caused you to look, you could be sucked down by the blackness.
Some people jump deliberately. What you must do instead is choose to look,
turn to face it and do so with the strength to know that whatever you might
do or achieve in your life is ultimately nothing but despite that you will
continue on. Your acceptance of The Absurd can lead you to work harder to
create meaning for yourself. I look over my shoulder all the time. Whenever
people argue about politics, or sports or get upset when they are slighted, I
take a quick peek at The Absurd and it makes me giggle. We live totally
submerged in nonsense. My friend woke up one day and decided to smash
his phone into pieces with a hammer. He has truly accepted the absurdity of
his own existence and it makes me proud to know him. We can take strength
from each other, all the absurd soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder in
defiance of The Absurd, taunting it.
Next time something doesn't make any sense to you, try to remember that
sense is an overrated way of thinking about things. It's very useful, no doubt
when it comes to living in our environment but it's also a dangerous trap
when it comes to thinking about yourself or your life and who or what we are
and where we might be going. And if you ever do come to terms with and
accept The Absurd don't let it frighten you or bully you around. Take a stand
against it. Flip it the bird. Seek neither physical death or philosophical death.
Fight it, not becasue you have to but just becasue you can.
Soldier on.


Credits to: http://www.reddit.com/r/Psychonaut/comments/1fvlwh/